That Which Could Not Be Said
by late.night.stories
Summary: What's more troublesome than falling for a troublesome girl? Telling her. ShikaIno. AU.


I don't own _Naruto_.

Where is Full Circle update? It's on its way :) In the meantime, enjoy this story.

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><p>Shikamaru Nara was a simple man with simple dreams. He only wanted three things for his future: marry a regular girl who isn't too ugly and not too pretty; have two children, first a girl, then a boy; retire after his daughter is married and his son becomes successful, and spend the rest of his life playing shōgi or Go, then die of old age before his wife.<p>

But he took a look at the girl sleeping soundly on the bed with him, her long, blonde hair sprawled over her face, and he knew that he would fulfill none of those wants.

First of all, she was very pretty, possibly the prettiest girl in existence. Secondly, she wanted a lot of babies. She hinted it a few times, commenting how cute babies were. Third, she was troublesome, and even if she were sick, she was still troublesome. Surely, when they retire, she would still be as troublesome.

He reached down to scoop her hair out of her face when her eyebrows knotted and her eyes fluttered open, revealing two beautiful blue orbs. She looked up at the man beside her who was leaning against the headboard.

"Did I wake you?" he asked, his voice laced with guilt.

She smiled as she pushed herself up from the bed, the bed sheet falling and revealing her naked body. She crawled towards him, straddled his sheet-covered lap, leaned towards his ear, and whispered seductively "Yeah, so now you have to pay."

Before he could argue or resist, not that he had any intention of doing so, he felt her lips against his. It was a wet kiss, and he could really feel her saliva. Instead of a kiss, he felt that she was licking his lips instead as if her tiny tongue was licking an ice cream.

His eyes fluttered open, and instead of a beautiful blonde goddess, he was greeted by a brown miniature pug, which was licking his face. He pushed himself from his bed, the same bed from his dream, and thoroughly wiped his lips. He didn't know what was worse—the fact that he dreamt of her again or the fact that a miniature pug was French kissing him and that was the most action he's gotten in a while. He looked back down at the pug beside him and groaned. The wake up kiss was definitely worse.

The pug barked, and though the bark was in doganese, Shikamaru understood what it meant. The dog wanted to go on a walk, just like he had always wanted every morning of the past week that Shikamaru had been taking care of him. He sighed, muttering how troublesome it was to be the one taking care of the dog, and got up from the bed.

The pug reminded him once again of his demands.

"Yeah, yeah, Pakkun, let me wash up first" he muttered as he tied his hair into its usual ponytail.

Pakkun barked again, his bark laced with impatience, and Shikamaru blew on him. Pakkun staggered back and almost fell backwards from the stench. Shikamaru smirked and walked towards his huge bathroom.

He lived in a penthouse. It was big, bigger than he wanted or needed, but it was the closest one to his job, so he chose to live in it anyway. He could very much afford it, after all. Though he was only twenty five, he was already a successful lawyer, made a name for himself, and managed to push himself to the top of his boss's list of her favorites. He didn't aspire to be any of those things, and he especially didn't aspire to be his boss's favorite because led to many more errands and cases.

Thinking of his troublesome boss led back to the thought of the girl in his dreams, who definitely was not his dream girl. She was troublesome, loud, high-maintenance, and impossible to please. She was so troublesome that she had been invading his dreams for the past few weeks. Shikamaru sighed. It was so typical of her to make his life troublesome.

Pakkun, having recovered from Shikamaru's breath, reminded Shikamaru of his demand.

Shikamaru groaned. He'd forgotten about him. He turned on his faucet and proceeded to washing his face and brushing his teeth. Had he known that choosing his current residence would mean that he would be a part-time pet-sitter, he would have definitely chosen a different residence.

Pakkun was Kakashi's pet. Hatake Kakashi was one of Tsunade's lawyers and also one of her favorites. He had to fly to another part of the country for a case, and Tsunade, knowing that Shikamaru's residence allowed pets, gave him the honors of taking care of the troublesome thing. There were other lawyers who lived in "Pets Allowed" residences, but because Shikamaru was her favorite, she picked him.

_Lucky me_, he sardonically thought as he wiped his face on his towel. He walked back towards his room.

Pakkun barked again.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming already" he said, his voice laced with irritation. He grabbed Pakkun's leash from his bedside table and hooked one end to his collar. He grabbed a jacket, put on his shoes, and no sooner than later, they were out on on the outside, much to Pakkun's delight. The wind blew and he shivered a bit. Fall has definitely settled. He tucked his one of his hands in his jacket walked to the park.

Thankfully, he lived close to the park. He only had to cross the street, and he was there.

The leaves were turning yellow, and though they weren't the same shade as her hair, they definitely reminded him of her again. He sighed. She had been invading his thoughts lately.

They first met when they were children. She was the daughter of his father's friend who was Choji's father's friend as well. The meeting was inevitable, for she had woven herself to two important figures of Shikamaru's life—his father and his best friend Choji.

He wished she hadn't. She was troublesome, almost if not more troublesome than her mother, and he really did not need another troublesome woman in his life. One was more than enough. But to Shikamaru's dismay, she did. She had woven herself into his life, and eventually, into his heart.

He didn't know exactly when the latter happened, or how it even happened, but he did know that he had fallen for her.

She was troublesome, loud, high-maintenance, and impossible to please, but he, Shikamaru Nara, fell for her anyway. He hated how Sakura made her cry when the former ended their friendship in elementary school, he hated how crazy she was over Sasuke in middle school, and he hated how he let her go without even so much as a word in high school.

One day, while she, Choji, and Shikamaru were eating at a restaurant, Ino suddenly asked, "Hey, Shikamaru, you don't like me like me, right?"

Choji choked on his food and desperately chugged down his water glass. Shikamaru glared at him before turning back to her, "What's with the random question?"

She used her fork and played with her food, avoiding the two boys' gazes, especially Shikamaru's. "Well, there's been this rumor at school that you and I are dating, and no matter how much I deny it, they won't believe me."

"Who cares what they think?" said Shikamaru, irritated.

"I do!" Ino defiantly said, looking up from her food. "Anyway," she resumed as she looked back down to her food, "I think we shouldn't hang so much anymore, you know? I don't want Sasuke to get the wrong idea that we're dating. That goes for you too, Choji," she looked up and pointed her fork at him, splattering bits of food to the latter's face, "since there are rumors that we're doing threesomes."

And just like that, she was had woven herself out of his life as quickly as she had woven herself in.

It wasn't until a year later at their high school graduation that Shikamaru talked to her again. During that year, he had often wondered what it would have been like had he said yes to her question, and during that year, he often considered telling her the truth. He was a genius, and he already thought of 200 plans on how to tell her, none of which made it to reality, even at graduation, when they were partnered up and he had the perfect chance.

"Hey, sorry about ditching you and Choji just like that. Obviously, it wasn't the rumor that's keeping Sasuke away. Anyway, I don't know whether to be glad or sad that you still haven't changed," she said as she fixed his gown, cap tassle, and cords. "I don't know how you survived the past year without me" she chuckled in disbelief.

In his plan, this was the part in which he was supposed to say "I can't, I can't survive without you, so you have to stay with me, whether you like it or not"

But instead, he smirked and said, "The past year has actually been the most peaceful year I've had."

She laughed. He missed her laugh. "Yeah, well you're welcome then" she stuck out her tongue.

And though Shikamaru was a genius, and he had 200 plans, in the end, he said nothing, and for the second time, she walked out of his life without even so much as a fight.

And that was the last time he'd seen of her, at least physically anyway, since she'd been invading his thoughts and his dreams lately. But as they near the playground, Shikamaru discovered that her invasion wasn't finished.

"Shikamaru!"

She's invaded his hearing senses as well.

"Shikamaru!"

Maybe it was time to go to talk to a therapist…

"Shikamaru, I know you can hear me!" someone grabbed his arm and turned him around.

His eyes widened at the sight.

"I-Ino!"

Maybe his dreams were a sign. He had 200 plans, it was time to pick one.

Before he could even say anything, a little girl gasped, "Ah~ look mommy, he's so cute!"

Shikamaru looked down and saw a little girl with blonde hair pointing at Pakkun. And then, at the same moment, he realized what his dreams truly meant.

They were his subconscious telling him of what he missed, reminding him of his cowardice.

She was troublesome, loud, high-maintenance, and impossible to please, but he, Shikamaru Nara, fell for her anyway, and he let her go without so much as a fight.

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><p>"Kushina-chan, how many times do I have to tell you that I'm not your mother?"<p>

I was thinking of adding that line at the end and ending the chapter with a dumbfounded Shikamaru, which would then make this into a mini-story (five chapters at the **most**) but I dunno XD

Will _you_ be interested if I continued this?


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